Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds violated privacy laws when she tipped off transgender activists about a planned women’s rights event at Hobart’s Town Hall, Tasmania’s Ombudsman has ruled.
An investigation found that Reynolds shared confidential information about councillor Louise Elliot’s personal request to book the ballroom for a “community forum on women’s rights and free speech” in November 2023.
The Lord Mayor, driven by her own view that the request was discriminatory, provided activists with council contact information to lodge objections.
The council subsequently denied Elliot’s booking, before it later emerged that she had been misled about the venue’s availability on the requested dates.
In his findings released this week, Ombudsman Richard Connock identified four separate privacy breaches.
The first was committed by Council’s Connected City Director, who improperly shared booking details with the executive leadership team.
The second was when Lord Mayor Reynolds leaked Elliot’s confidential information and the third when the Connected City Director, serving as acting CEO, discussed the booking with the activists.
The fourth breach was committed by the council itself, which failed to take reasonable steps to protect Elliot’s personal information from misuse or disclosure.
“It is concerning that the Lord Mayor, whose role necessarily involves access to personal and sensitive information about members of the community on a regular basis, was not aware information they may receive in the course of their duties is subject to privacy considerations,” Connock said.
Louise Elliot described the council and Lord Mayor’s actions as “unfathomable” following the lengthy investigation.
“A key issue for me in this latest development is that, even now, the Lord Mayor thinks she’s done nothing wrong,” Elliot said. “There’s no lesson learned, let alone any genuine apology from her.”
“We have a Lord Mayor that doesn’t have a grip on the fundamental basics of governance like privacy and discrimination law and thinks they’re above the law, even if she understood it.”
“It’s clear she also thinks her views are so enlightened that anything she does is justified.”
While Reynolds declined to comment on the findings, the report noted she had claimed to have shared the information for “lawful and legitimate purposes”.
City of Hobart CEO Michael Stretton told Pulse an “unreserved public apology” was made to councillor Elliot in July last year following “multiple independent investigations into the substantive matter”.
He confirmed that training on privacy laws and policies would be provided to all elected members, including the Lord Mayor, as recommended by the Ombudsman.
